Essex Torcaso, Caroline (Univ. of Maryland), Levine, William S. (Univ. of Maryland), Stone, Maureen (Univ. of Maryland Dental School), Murano, Emi Z. (Univ. of Maryland Dental School)

The Biomechanics and Control of the Tongue During Speech

Scheduled for presentation during the Regular Session "Nonlinear Control III" (FrP10), Friday, July 28, 2006, 16:35−17:00, Room 103

17th International Symposium on Mathematical Theory of Networks and Systems, July 24-28, 2006, Kyoto, Japan

This information is tentative and subject to change. Compiled on April 19, 2024

Abstract

The human tongue is used in speaking, an activity unique to humans. The tongue is unusual in that it does not contain any rigid structure, such as a bone, for its muscles to act against. In an effort to better understand the biomechanics and control of the tongue, a mathematical model has been created. This model is in the form of a nonlinear controllable incompressible elastic structure that undergoes large deformations. The model is then used to solve a simplified inverse problem. The trajectories of arbitrary points within the tongue are obtained by means of tagged cine MRI. This data is then used as input to a two-dimensional simplification of the model. The output is the set of muscle activations that produce the best approximation to the observed motion in a least squares sense. This results in information relevant to a biological question—How many independently controllable motor units are there in the tongue?